JERUSALEM – A radical Islamist group unleashed its largest navy incursion towards Syrian regime forces since 2020 within the northwest of the war-ravaged Syrian Arab Republic, triggering Russian and Syrian warplanes on Thursday to bomb the rebel offensive.
Rebels led by the U.S-designated Islamist terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham stormed a dozen cities and villages in northwest Aleppo province, which is managed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The Syrian Islamist offensive began on the identical day that Assad’s ally, the Lebanese-based terrorist group, Hezbollah, reached a ceasefire settlement with Israel to finish over 14 months of warfare.
The battle unfolding in Syria includes a motley crew of U.S.-classified state-sponsors of terrorism — Assad’s regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran — towards a Turkey-backed Islamist terrorist motion. Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime has confronted accusations of struggle crimes throughout its invasion of Ukraine.
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Former U.S. protection intel officer Rebekah Koffler, who’s an professional on Putin, instructed Fox Information Digital, “That is traditional Putin’s Playbook, what’s occurring in Syria, on Thanksgiving Day. He’s doing what’s known as lateral escalation in Syria, in response to Biden’s giving authorization to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to make use of U.S. ATACMs to strike deep into Russia, and Zelensky taking Biden up on his provide. Russia and the USA are on the other sides of the struggle in Syria. So Putin is ratcheting up assist of Assad, which is counter to U.S. coverage, signaling to Biden that he will likely be countering U.S. pursuits throughout a number of geographic areas.”
Koffler added, “Putin is signaling strain on Biden to withdraw authorization from Zelensky to make use of ATACMs towards Russia. The doctrine is ‘escalate to de-escalate.’ With the current strike of hypersonic missile Oreshnik on Ukraine, Putin climbed a number of rungs on the escalation ladder. With Russian air forces becoming a member of Syrian airfare bombing rebel-held northwestern Syria, he’s additionally transferring laterally on the escalation ladder, to out escalate the USA, unbalance Biden, and create as a lot negotiating leverage on Ukraine for himself earlier than President Trump begins his second time period. I’d not be shocked if Assad strikes the rebel-held territories with chemical weapons once more.”
Alex Grinberg, an Israeli professional on Russia, instructed Fox Information Digital that the remainder of Assad’s military can’t combat towards Hayat Tahrir al-Sham with out Russian air energy.
He mentioned that is “normally what the Russians do” in Syria.
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Iranian regime-controlled state media mentioned that Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier Basic Kioumars Pourhashemi was killed in Aleppo throughout the incursion. Pourhashemi was a senior IRGC navy adviser in Syria.
Islamist rebels say the marketing campaign was in response to stepped-up strikes in current weeks towards civilians by the Russian and Syrian air forces on areas in southern Idlib, and to preempt any assaults by the Syrian military, which they mentioned was increase troops close to entrance traces with rebels.
Assad’s struggle towards his inhabitants, which began with Syrians calling for democracy in 2011, has resulted within the murders of over 500,000 individuals.
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Iran has despatched hundreds of fighters to Syria throughout the Syrian struggle. Whereas these have included members of the Guards, formally serving as advisers, the majority have been Shi’ite militiamen from everywhere in the area.
Turkish safety sources mentioned on Thursday the rebels initially launched a restricted operation after assaults by Syrian authorities forces, and expanded the operation after authorities forces deserted their positions.
Reuters contributed to this report.